Help guides

Keeping and deleting documents

A sent envelope is a record of what people were asked and what they did, so SignSwifly keeps it. Drafts, templates and the files saved for your workspace are things you’re still working on: you can change them or delete them, and deleting a draft deletes it and every document added to it, for good.

On Scale, a retention policy can set how long finished envelopes’ documents are kept, and the legal hold add-on keeps the envelopes a dispute, an investigation or an audit needs, whatever the policy says. On Team and Scale, an export gives you a copy to keep in your own systems.

Drafts

An envelope is a draft until you send it. Nothing in it has been sent or signed, so it’s yours to change or delete.

To delete one, open Send & Sign → Drafts, choose Delete draft, and confirm. The draft is deleted for good, with its recipients, its fields and every document added to it. It can’t be undone, so keep your own copy of anything you might need again.

On the Free plan, deleting a draft also makes room under the limit of 3 drafts at a time.

Changing a draft’s documents

When you change a draft’s documents, the files a change replaces are deleted once the change is saved. That happens when you:

• remove a document from the draft;
• choose Replace file;
• save your changes in Edit content, the PDF editor (Solo and up);
• save a Word document’s wording in Edit wording, the document editor (Solo and up).

On Solo and up, a Word document added to a draft keeps its Word file, unless the app says it was added as a fixed PDF. Saving its wording keeps the Word file it was first added as, so Go back to the uploaded file still works. Replace file and Edit content delete the Word files it had, the one it was first added as included. After Replace file with another Word file, Go back goes to that new file, unless the app says it was added as a fixed PDF; after Edit content, it’s a PDF, with no Word file to go back to. Removing the document deletes its Word files too, so keep your own copy of any Word file you might need again.

Sent envelopes

Once an envelope is sent, it can’t be deleted. It stays in your list as a record, with its documents and its audit trail, and once it completes, its sealed documents and certificate of completion.

• To stop an envelope that’s still out for signing, open it under Send & Sign and choose Void envelope. Signers’ links stop working straight away, and the voided envelope stays in your list as a record too. A completed envelope can’t be voided.
• Archive only files an envelope away from your main lists. Nothing is deleted, and one still out for signing carries on.
• How long a sent envelope’s documents can be downloaded depends on your plan and, on Scale, on your retention policy: see How long documents stay available.

Templates and other working files

Templates, PDFs saved in the PDF editor and saved documents are working files, shared with everyone in your workspace. Your team can change or delete them at any time, and a legal hold doesn’t keep them. An envelope made from one has its own copy, so deleting a working file doesn’t change envelopes you’ve already sent.

Templates

Under Templates, a draft or an archived template can be deleted: choose Delete and confirm. It’s deleted for good, with every document added to it, for everyone in your workspace. Envelopes already sent from it keep their own copies. It can’t be undone. To take an active template out of use without deleting it, archive it. On Free, an archived template still counts towards your 2, so deleting one is what makes room for another. See Templates.

PDFs saved in the PDF editor

On Solo and up, the PDF editor keeps PDFs for your workspace under Saved PDFs. Each one keeps only its latest save: saving again replaces the copy kept before. Deleting one deletes it for good, for everyone in your workspace. To keep a copy of your own, open it and choose Download while your workspace is on Solo or above: on Free they can’t be opened. Exports don’t include PDFs saved in the PDF editor.

Saved documents

On Solo and up, the Word documents the document editor saves are under Saved documents. Each one keeps its last 10 versions: once there are 10, saving it again deletes the oldest. Any version still kept can be opened, downloaded or put back. Deleting a saved document deletes every version of it, for good, for everyone in your workspace. To keep a copy of your own, choose Download Word on it. On Team and Scale, an export also includes the newest version of each.

Files nothing uses any more

When you delete something, or a save replaces a file, SignSwifly deletes the stored files that went with it. A copy left behind when an upload or a save didn’t finish is tidied up later. SignSwifly never removes a file that a draft, an envelope, a template or anything else in your workspace still uses.

How long documents stay available

On Solo, Team and Scale, a sent envelope’s documents stay available for as long as your workspace exists, unless a Scale workspace sets a retention policy.

On the Free plan, the documents of an envelope sent on Free stay available for 6 months after it finishes: after it completes, is declined, is voided or expires. After that, its row in your list reads Documents locked. Nothing is deleted: upgrade to Solo or above and they’re available again. Envelopes you sent while on a paid plan stay available on Free. See Plans and billing.

Retention policy (Scale)

On Scale, the owner or an admin can set how long a finished envelope’s documents are kept, under Settings → Data & Retention → Document retention. An envelope is finished once it completes, is declined, is voided or expires. Until you set a period, documents are kept for as long as the workspace exists.

1. In Keep documents for (days after an envelope finishes), enter between 30 and 3,650 days (10 years). 30 days is the least, so your signers have time to save their copy.
2. Under At the end of the period, choose whether SignSwifly stops handing the documents out, or deletes them (below).
3. Choose Save retention.

Stop handing them out, or delete them

• Stop handing them out. Past the period, nobody can download the documents: not you, not your signers, and exports leave them out. Nothing is deleted, so a longer period, or clearing it, brings them back.
• Delete them. Past the period, SignSwifly deletes the documents as they were uploaded and any files signers attached, and writes an entry on the envelope’s audit trail saying so. This can’t be undone. Switching deleting on, or shortening the period while it’s on, asks you to type DELETE to confirm, and nothing is deleted for 7 days after you confirm, so a mistake can be put right.

Either way:

• The envelope itself, its recipients and its audit trail are always kept.
• Sealed documents and certificates of completion are kept in write-once storage for 7 years from when the envelope completed, and your retention policy can’t shorten that. Past your period they’re withheld from everyone with the rest. If your policy deletes, they’re deleted once that storage period ends, and that’s written on each envelope’s audit trail.
• Envelopes under a legal hold are neither withheld nor deleted until every hold on them is released.
• Each envelope’s row under Send & Sign says where it stands. Before the end of the period, it says until when your policy keeps its documents. Past it, the row reads Documents locked and says since when; if your policy deletes, it says they’re due to be deleted, or from when, while the 7 days after you confirmed are still running. Until they’re deleted, a longer period brings them back. Once they’re deleted, the row reads Documents deleted, with the day.
• Each change to the policy is recorded under Settings → Team → Activity, which the owner and admins can see, and so is each pass that deletes documents as they were uploaded.
• If your workspace leaves Scale, the policy is kept but not applied: documents it was withholding are available again, though documents already deleted can’t come back. It applies again if you return to Scale: if it deletes, deleting starts again straight away, with no new 7-day wait. You can clear it on any plan.

Legal hold (an add-on to Scale)

A legal hold keeps sent envelopes exactly as they are for a dispute, an investigation or an audit: their documents, sealed copies and audit trails. While any hold covers an envelope, your retention policy neither withholds nor deletes its documents, so you can still produce them. Documents the policy deleted before a hold was placed can’t be brought back: see What a hold keeps. Signing, declining and voiding carry on as normal.

Legal hold is an add-on to the Scale plan, priced in your organisation’s agreement: Scale on its own doesn’t include it. To add it, contact us. Only the owner or an admin can place or release a hold. Everyone in the workspace can see how many envelopes are under legal hold, under Settings → Data & Retention.

What a hold keeps, and what it doesn’t

• It keeps sent envelopes, with their documents, sealed copies and audit trails.
• It doesn’t keep working files: drafts, templates and PDFs saved in the PDF editor. A draft can’t be held at all, since nothing in it has been sent or signed. While a hold is in place, your team can still change or delete working files as normal, so download any you need to keep.
• A hold doesn’t keep saved documents either, and each still keeps only its last 10 versions. Download any you need to keep. On Team and Scale, each export includes the newest version of every saved document.
• If your retention policy had already deleted an envelope’s documents before it was held, the hold keeps what’s left of it: its record, its audit trail and its sealed copies. The sealed copies stay in storage, but they can’t be downloaded or exported any more. If you need one, contact us.
• If your workspace moves to Free, envelopes it sent while on Free are still locked 6 months after they finish, even under a hold. Nothing is deleted, and upgrading brings them back.

Place a hold

• On chosen envelopes. Open a sent envelope under Send & Sign and choose Place legal hold… on it. Choose A new hold and give it a name, such as the matter it’s for, and a reason, or add the envelope to a hold you placed this way before. Each envelope gets an entry on its audit trail.
• On everything sent, or on a sender’s or a period’s envelopes. Under Settings → Data & Retention → Legal holds, give the hold a name and a reason. Once a hold is in force, this form is folded away under Place a hold on everything sent, or on a sender’s or a period’s envelopes, so open that first. To narrow it, fill in Only envelopes sent by with the address of one person, past or present, or the Sent from and Sent to dates, or both. Choose Place legal hold. It covers every sent envelope that matches, and any sent later that matches, for as long as it stands.

Held envelopes show Legal hold in your list, and every hold placed or released is recorded under Settings → Team → Activity.

Release a hold

• To release a whole hold, choose Release… beside it under Settings → Data & Retention → Legal holds, and say why. It stays listed under Released holds, with who released it, when and why.
• To take one envelope off a hold that names envelopes, choose Release… on the envelope under Send & Sign, and say why. Taking off the last envelope on a hold releases the hold.
• Once no hold covers an envelope, your retention policy applies to it again. If it’s past its period, its documents are withheld straight away or, if the policy deletes, deleted soon after, with no new 7-day wait: that wait counts from when deleting was confirmed, not from the release. Download or export anything you need before you release a hold.

If your plan or agreement changes

Releasing a hold works on every plan. If your workspace leaves Scale, or your agreement no longer includes the add-on, holds already in place stay in force and keep what they cover until you release them. A new hold can’t be placed, and envelopes can’t be added to one, without the add-on.

Export your envelopes (Team and Scale)

On Team and Scale, the owner or an admin can export the workspace’s envelopes, to keep a copy in your own systems.

1. Open Settings → Data & Retention → Export your envelopes.
2. Choose the dates the envelopes were created between, up to three years, and choose Prepare export.
3. It’s prepared in the background, usually within 15 minutes. Then choose Download. A large export comes as several ZIP files, each downloaded on its own.

An export holds:

• envelopes.csv, with a row for every envelope created in those dates: its status, dates, sender, recipients and documents, whether its files are in the export, and whether it’s under legal hold. When the export comes as several ZIP files, it’s in the last one;
• for each completed envelope whose documents are still available, its sealed documents and certificate of completion, in a folder named by its SignSwifly ID and subject. A held envelope’s are included even past your retention period;
• the newest version of every saved document, whatever the dates, in the library/word folder of the first ZIP file, without its earlier versions.

It doesn’t hold:

• the documents of drafts, or of envelopes that were declined, voided or expired, or are still out for signing: only a completed envelope has sealed documents;
• documents withheld or deleted under your retention policy (the CSV says which);
• an envelope’s combined PDF, or files signers attached: download those from the envelope’s row under Send & Sign;
• PDFs saved in the PDF editor, or templates.

You can ask for 5 exports a day. Wait for one to be ready before asking for the next. Choose Download as often as you need until the files are deleted: each link it gives works once. Who downloaded what is recorded under Settings → Team → Activity. The files are deleted 7 days after they’re ready: they’re a copy of your signed contracts, so keep them somewhere safe.

For a PDF saved in the PDF editor, open it and choose Download. On Free and Solo, download each envelope’s files from its own row under Send & Sign: see Download and verify.